Wilderness Journals of Everett Ruess

"I would like to be influenced, taken in hand by some one, but I don't think there is anyone in the world who knows enough to be able to advise me. I can't find my ideal anywhere. So I am rather afraid of myself." --Everett Ruess, 29 May 1932 journal entry Driven to the beauties of Nature, yet both enraptured and tormented by what he say and felt, young Everett Ruess wandered alone through the High Sierras and across the scenic deserts of the Four Corners region. He made forays during warm seasons of the year beginning in 1930. Then in late 1934, not yet twenty-one years old, he mysteriously disappeared from the Escalante Canyon area of Southern Utah, and was never seen again. While most of his lyrically written, essay-type letters are in print, his only existing journals--for 1932 and 1933--have never before been published. These journals were his companions, a place where he confided his joys, his regrets, his complaints, and his aspirations, as well as some exciting adventures. They also provide us with insight into Everett's deeper feelings toward the complexity, the frustrations, as well as the beauty of life. W.L. Rusho is the editor of Everett Ruess: A Vagabond for Beauty (Gibbs Smith, Publisher) and is working on a forthcoming photographic essay book on Everett Ruess country.